Top 5 Movie Punches

I came up with this list while watching Wedding Crashers, and anyone familiar with this movie should be able to link the title to the scene. I suppose it could be a tough list, but I'm including a good deal of honorable mentions to help with options. Unfortunately, I didn't have that luxury, but I did go through all of my netflix rated movies to look for all my options. The idea of this list is the top five singular punches, or knockout punches. If it is a few punches from one guy to another, like he's just beating the shit out of him for a couple punches, I will accept it, as I have one or two like that. If you want to break this rule, you can, but I'm setting that none of these punches have a counter from the victim.

Tory's Top 5:

1. Wedding Crashers - Vince Vaughn punching Sack - There are punches that are perhaps prettier, but none of them come with quite the cathartic "Go, Vince Vaughn." kind of reaction. I'm still not sure if his name is Sack or Zack, but I know Vince punched the shit out of him.

2. Groundhog Day - Bill Murray punching Ned Rier - Not sure how to spell his last name, but this ranks number two as it is definitely the funniest punch in movie history.

3. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - Sirius Black punching whoever - You've gotta commend someone who is an insanely powerful wizard and then in order to save his Godson, casts magic and spells away and just knocks the hell out of Malfoy (I think that's who he hits.)

4. Rushmore - Max Fischer getting punched - "Don't fuck with my play." ::Whack::

5. Fight Club - Norton punching Pitt - A good deal of these are comedic punches, and this is no difference. Norton, forced to punch Brad Pitt, not sure of what he's doing and hitting Pitt in the ear. Though I've never been in a fight, I have been hit in the ear, and vastly funny reaction by Pitt is understood.

Honorable Mentions - Mr. Smith goes to Washington, the punch montage; Life Aquatic, the sucker punch scene; Snatch, gorgeous George getting hit by Pitt; Hustle and Flow, Terrence Howard's beatdown on Skinny Black; Mallrats, Ben Affleck getting punched by Jason Lee.


Dan's Top 5:

1. Back To the Future - George McFly punches Biff Tannen - The one punch that changed history... literally. This one punch lunched an entirely different course of history wherein George is successful and Biff is timid. Violence may not solve life's problems, but it can make your life a hell of a lot better thirty years down the road.

2. Snatch - "Iron" Mickey O'Neil punches Horace "Good Night" Anderson - Just as important as the punch is the underwater shot of Brad Pitt, having momentarily been knocked unconscious and summoning up a final blow from nowhere. Equally important is the best piece of narration in the entire movie, "Now, we're fucked."

3. Rocky II - Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed punch each other - A boxing match with a dramatic conclusion? Either you're watching an old Muhammad Ali fight, or you're watching a boxing movie. Throughout Rocky II, you're pulling for Rocky just as much as - if not more than - during the first movie. In a way, I was also pulling for Creed as well, so the fight to get back to their wobbly legs is edge-of-your-seat suspense.

4. Independence Day - Capt. Steven Hiller punches an alien fighter pilot - Nothing says "I'm a badass American" than letting humanity's first contact with an alien species be a knockout punch to the head. What's amazing about this punch is that it knocked the alien pilot out for a really long time, right until it was about to die on the operating table.

5. Blazing Saddles - Mongo punches a horse - I take #4 back, this is how you indicate being a badass. Punch a defenseless animal for no apparent reason, other than to punch something. This answers that question, "what the fuck was that for?"

Honorable mentions: Everything Tory mentioned.

Ryan's Top Five

I'll try to think of some new ones...

1. High Fidelity - Dick punches Ian with a telephone - Hilarity, pure and simple. Those are some of my favorite scenes from any movie.

2. Office Space - Michael Bolton punches the printer - What I love is that you can really see the rage right after he throws away the bat and starts punching the machine. Who on earth has watched this and not wanted to participate?

3. Snatch - One-Punch Machine Gun Mickey gets knocked down by Good Night Anderson - Really the other punches from Snatch are better, but this one is an awesome shot. Notably, Brad Pitt's body is at one point parallel with the ground, in mid-air. Also the sound effects are cool.

4. Breakfast Club - Judd. T. Nelson punches the sky at the end - BWA HA HA I THOUGHT OF THE BEST ANSWER EVER! Don't you, forget about this scene...don't don't don't don't...

5. The Simpsons - Drederick Tatum punches Homer on top of his skull - Yes, this is cheating, because it's from a TV show, but The Simpsons managed to make a cartoon punch cringe-worthy. That's pretty good.

Side note: I haven't seen many boxing movies.